I'd rather be having a quiet drink... and can be followed on Twitter @alcothusiast; and friended on Untappd (handle: "neilcake" - all welcome).

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

More Adventures With Glenmorangie Original

More
Adventures with Glenmorangie Original

There
are some brands of spirit that, for whatever reason, have more than a
walk-on part in your spiritual journey. Glenmorangie Original is one
of those. You can understand it really; it’s reasonably priced,
well known, well regarded and popular. It is also a favourite of my
father-in-law. It’s his only favourite actually.

This
time around Glenmorangie Original enters the play in Act One. Mr and
Mrs Cake are holding a housewarming party and all their friends are
there. All have brought booze. Some have brought booze as gifts. One
such gift from one of Mr Cake’s golf friends is a bottle of
Glenmorangie Original. Mr Cake decides to keep it until he has
something that he wants to compare it with.

More
stuff happens that isn’t related to Glenmorangie Original, but then
at the beginning of Act Two, Mr Cake hears that his father-in-law
(and wife) is about to come over for a visit, and knowing that this
was his favourite, decides to open it when he arrives.

The
father-in-law arrives and Mr Cake directs him to the Glenmorangie
Original and says “help yourself to top-ups”.

Let
me just break the fourth wall here and make sure you’re aware that
the play being described here isn’t a play at all. It’s what
really happened and I’m just trying to tell the story in a slightly
more interesting way. Here’s what happened next.

My
father-in-law proceeded to help himself to top-ups with alarming
regularity over the next day and a half, until he’d actually drank
about half the bottle. What the actual fuck? I’m not saying I
didn’t actually mean “help yourself”, but I thought there was a
kind of unspoken agreement that you’re supposed to hold yourself
back a little bit. Obviously not. The good thing about this is that I
can up my daily drinking game quite significantly and still come out
looking conservative (small c) compared to my wife’s dad.

Anyway,
a few days after he left, I decided to have a glass myself and get
reacquainted – just in case he came back and finished the bottle
off before I got a chance – so here’s a chance to let the weight
of experience settle and see if my thoughts have changed – because,
as you know, I like to take a long term view of spirits, considering
them over a lifetime instead of over a glass; writing about them
anecdotally instead of analytically; allowing a story to evolve
instead of setting my thoughts in stone; evaluating them on a deeper
(though admittedly less knowledgable or scientific) level than a list
of flavours and a score out of 100.

I
figured I’d better have a look over things I’ve written about it
previously first, just to see what my original thoughts were. I can
see there was a disappointing occasion when I drank it alongside a
glass of The Famous Grouse and couldn’t tell them apart, describing
both as bland and watery. I figured it must have been compromised in
some way. This is in no way to suggest that The Famous Grouse is
indistinguishable from any single malt or that it is better than the
Glenmorangie Original – it was just an impression at the time,
perhaps due to the influence of having drunk or eaten something
confusing beforehand.

Later
I compared it to a Strathisla 12, and concluded that the Glenmorangie
had more repeat allure. Then I was drinking it alongside Talisker 10,
and enjoying the Glenmorangie more. So I seem to recall that I was
prepared for a Kellogs Corn Flakes moment
– you know; “Have you forgotten how good they taste?”.

On
my first taste this time around, I thought that I might have
undervalued it and immediately considered bumping it up from 18th
to 7th in my all time single malts list, behind the 32year old Bunnahabhain and ahead of the 14 year old ArranSherry Cask 1997, as I had found it light, fruity and playful –
just really enjoyable. But then something strange happened. On
succeeding occasions it seemed to have settled into an almost
uninteresting blandness. There are no intriguing edges and the
overall flavour is far less in your face than I would have my whisky
by choice. I reconsidered again, and now it sits at 23rd.
That’s lower than it was originally, but this can partly be
explained by some new entries being rated better than it in the
meantime. Though that doesn’t explain how it is now ranked lower
than the Talisker 10 I’d preferred it to previously. What explains
that is that this hierarchy is arbitrary and prone to rearrangement
at the drop of a hat. In my defence, I bet even Jim Murray
looks at his past ratings and goes “23 for balance? I should
make that 21”.

Now
that that bottle is finished, I can conclude that Glenmorangie
Original is still probably the easiest drinking single malt scotch
you can get, but I need more from my scotch. And that is why I will
try some more Glenmorangies in future, but I won’t be buying the
Original again – unless the father-in-law is visiting (we learned
long ago not to try getting him anything else). Easy drinking just
isn’t on my list of criteria.

Postscript

Curiously
there is a third act to this play. Inbetween starting this post and
getting around to posting it, Mr Cake’s father-in-law (and wife)
came for another visit. This time Mrs Cake just straight out bought
her dad a bottle of Glenmorangie Original and gave it to him as a
birthday present. They stayed longer, and drank only a little bit
more than last time – ultimately leaving about a quarter of a
bottle behind. So I guess I’ll be drinking a bit more of this stuff
after all. Mind you, I don’t really think of it as mine, so I’ve
only had one glass so far. Don’t worry though; I don’t think I’ll
be dedicating any more posts to it.

Definitions

What happens when you zone out after having had a cheeky lunchtime pint.

Alcothusiast:

Not an alcoholic, someone who appreciates booze.

Anxiety, The:

The uneasy feeling that accompanies any noteworthy hangover.

Booze Buffet Mentality:

The propensity people have to go nuts whenever there's a free bar.

Booze Porn:Photos of alcohol.

Bread Chest:Not booze related, but this term describes the indigestion you get from eating too many bread products too quickly. Just putting it out there...

Crawler's Block:The inability to decide where to go next during a pub crawl - often resulting in crawl stagnation and someone saying, "shall we just have another one here?"

Crawl Stagnation:The result of failing to plan a pub crawl sufficiently - lack of a route, theme or over-familiarity with nearby pubs can all be contributing factors.

Excess Induced Alcohol Aversion:An intolerance for a drink caused (usually) by one occasion of overindulgence.

The Family:My whisky collection.

MOMA:

Moment of Maximum Appreciation. Every bottle has one. It's the time you drink it where you enjoy it most.

Old Man Pub:Traditional British pub, renowned for being quiet, cosy and frequented by old men. Much favoured by people who like a nice chat while they drink.Psychological Drinks Cabinet:Collective term relating to the kinds of alcoholic drinks a person has need for.Road Beers:

Cans of beer that you take with you when you go out, to consume on the way.

The 3 Types of Rum:White, gold and dark. Together they form the base of many a great cocktail.

About Me

Neil Cake is interested in all types of booze, but is by no means an authority or expert. Most of the time he's just trying to be funny, but he is learning, and enjoys sharing his adventures and what he learns on the Drink it How You Like it blog.
Thengyuverrymuuuuuch.